With spring and Memorial Day weekend (a busy travel period) coming up in the US next month, many travellers will be shocked when they go to return their car rentals if the vehicle goes back with less than a full tank of petrol. However, Enterprise Holdings’ car rental brands – Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental – will be giving customers a better deal.

Fuel prices have been steadily increasing over the last few months, topping a national average of $3.90 per gallon. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), aka Triple A, this is around a 16% rise since January. This is already bad enough, but car hire companies charge more than the average price of petrol if customers don’t return their vehicle with a full tank. These fees can be excessive at many companies, but Enterprise Holdings’ brands will be charging almost $4 a gallon less in some cases.

The current refueling cost for customers to return a vehicle without a full tank of petrol at Enterprise, Alamo and National ranges from $5.64-$6.39 per gallon. These figures depend on the average retail fuel price in the specific rental office areas. It’s based on the price of local-market, self-serve petrol, and the mark-up doesn’t go over 50%. Additionally, the most that the mark-up can be is capped at $2 a gallon. However, Enterprise, Alamo and National customers can choose to prepay for a full tank for a discount or return the vehicle after refilling the tank themselves.

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